It is somehow fitting that I follow a post about country music with one about Walmart. Perhaps I've got the makings of my own country music song...
My latest commercial quandary is this:
I'm in the market for a massage table, and I've settled on a brand and model. I went to froogle.com and searched...and it turns out that the Walmart online price, when you include shipping, is about $70 cheaper than at the massage school I am going to.
What to do?
For years, I have avoided Walmart...for a variety of reasons...but the one most clear and dear to my heart is tied to Walmart's decimation of the downtowns and main streets in central nebraska where my mom is from.
But am I really doing good by not saving $70 on the massage table? What if I were to give that $70 to one of the environmental nonprofits doing great work? Or to a group helping the working poor? (perhaps the people who sold me the table at WalMart...)
...anyway...this is what is going through my head right now...and also, I saw that the cetaphil face lotion I have been using is 25% cheaper at Walmart than CVS. It's 9 bucks instead of 12. what to do about that?
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4 commenti:
i hear you on the walmart quandry. where we live now there is a walmart and no other options to shop at, it has already driven out most of the smaller stores. i have managed to avoid it so far but i'm sure it is just a matter of time before i have to give in.
As a fellow bleeding heart liberal, I feel your pain. But economic realities are economic realities. Yes, there are downsides to Wal-mart like those you cited. But in all of the coverage and complaints about Wal-Mart, its low pay, etc., I never hear any mention of the fact that poor people who live near Wal-Mart benefit tremendously from the fact that their grocery and dry goods costs are remarkably lower than the mom and pop stores you want to preserve. It's very easy to forget that voting to keep all the mom and pop stores open and Wal-Mart out has a significant impact on the costs of living of the poor who might shop there. Are the economic interest of a handful of store owners more important than hundreds of economically disadvantaged shoppers?
With a family of five, I save hundreds of dollars at Wal-Mart every month. And so do a lot of much poorer people in my community.
Buy the cheaper table at Wal-Mart and then support socially just minimum wage and health care reform laws. That way, you're really actually helping most poor people (albeit prehaps not Wal-Mart's workers) rather than trying to preserve 1950s America, which really doesn't exist anywhere outside of Nebraska anymore.
Just my one cent (I'd offer two, but must stay competitive).
CB
Do it in italian way
-first go to walmart
-then go to confession
free your shopping and free your soul
ciao
thanks everyone...all good points...and in the end...I did buy the table at Walmart. Though if I had more time and patience to comparison shop, I should have just bought a used table on CraigsList!
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